Sunday, May 22, 2016

Monday May 16 -- Designing Effective Assessments

contributed by Chelsea Florence and Jalina Graham

Defining & Designing Effective Assessments

What is the role of assessments in the classroom? And how does
one ensure that it is effective?

These were among the issues explored this week. Assessments are
measurements of student learning and teaching often with an eye towards a
particular goal or target. It is essentially gathering data for some future
progressive step. There are varying types of assessments including diagnostic,
formative, interim, and summative, which are summarized below.

Immediate feedback for both student & instructor to
allow improvement or adjustment

Student involvement& ownership

Often lower stakes

More formalized formative assessments

(incl. more material--often a chapter unit, etc.)

Higher stakes

“A snapshot of student learning at a particular
point-in-time” (-UCD)

Measure learning & skill mastery

The instructor only examines results

High stakes

Prep for...

Course planning

Next lesson/activity

Next unit

Next course/...

Example of activities

Self reports, journal writing, ask them question

Quiz, discussion session, small group activities

Unit exams, midterms, papers, essays

Final paper, presentation, cumulative final exam, portfolio

In one sense, all types of assessments are formative, that is,
they are used to check the continuing progress of students with an eye towards
the next step, whether that be a new chapter unit, another course, graduate
school, etc. What primarily differentiates types of assessment are how are they being used (method of
application) and what degree of learning has occurred by that point in time
(timing). Nevertheless, assessments in reality often cannot be exclusively
categorized as one type of assessment or another--as an example, assessments
may be administered for both short term learning and long term summative goals.
Note that one can easily tweak the strategies your teaching objectives.

Once you have figured out what type of assessment you want to
do, how do you ensure it is effective? How do you measure student learning? Goal alignment is key here.

As noted in a previous GTC meeting,
goal alignment involves choosing appropriate and specific goals which take
students’ previous experiences and future steps into account. Figure out what
they already know (prior knowledge) and where are they going. This step relates
more generally to the concept of “backward
design,” which involves starting with the ideas or questions you want your
students to effectively engage with first.

After you decide where your goals fall
on Bloom’s taxonomy, you can tailor the assessment to appropriately fit your
objectives and the course content. It is important to note that you can only
assess at higher levels on Bloom’s taxonomy if appropriate for the course
content. For example, you can only assess a student’s ability to think
critically about an argument if the learning activities and course objectives
emphasize this skill. So, if you’ve only summarized arguments made by an
author, you can’t expect an exam asking students to critique or synthesize
arguments to be an accurate assessment of what they’ve learned.

We actively engaged in an activity
interrogating actual course syllabi. As a group, there was a general consensus
that vague language in course goals made assignment design difficult. While one
syllabus that did have clearly stated and progressive course goals, the
assessments did not seem to fit the stated objectives.

Implementation of certain types of
activities are impacted not only by the course content and level of learning on
Bloom’s taxonomy but other factors such as class size and time. For example, a
larger class makes multiple choice an expedient option but moving higher on
Bloom’s becomes more difficult (Someone suggested students contributing
multiple choice questions to get to the level of “Create”). Additionally, the
time to create more in-depth assignments adds stress to an instructor’s already
strained time.

The group generated several ideas for
effectively assessing higher levels on Bloom’s taxonomy using classic exam
formats like multiple choice and short answer.
For example, an instructor could have the students write their own
question (Multiple choice or otherwise) and then choose the best questions from
the group. This may decrease the amount
of time it takes to generate an effective test and in addition is a formative
activity in that the student learns to think critically about what is salient
in a course.

Finally, we discussed making summative
assessments more memorable and useful for students by adding formative elements
to the design (see finals and epic finales in resources).

In sum,

●If an instructor can clearly articulate their learning
objectives, it is easier for them to design an effective assessment for those
goals.

●Writing learning goals for the students (as opposed to
using the space in the syllabus as a reminder of course content for the
instructor) lets students anticipate the kinds of skills they may be tested on
and plan their study time accordingly, making the assessment a more accurate measurement
of their skills.

●The instructor has a lot of flexibility in adapting a
summative exam to their learning objectives given time restraints and need not
feel restricted by classic exam structure.

Welcome to the GTC!

The aim of this group is to provide a space for graduate students and post-docs on the UC Davis campus to feel supported in our efforts to become better teachers. This is a place to discuss teaching and learning philosophy and practice. We meet with the purpose of creating opportunities for collaborative interdisciplinary professional development in a community setting.

Spring 2017Meeting Time: Thursdays, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Location: Surge III (The Grove), Room 1353 or 1360

Questions? Want to get on the GTC list-serve? Contact this year's GTC facilitator: